When There are No Battle Lines
by Drag0nst0rm
Summary: Clint stays home to take care of his family. Unfortunately, some things are beyond his ability to fight. (Infinity War spoilers within.)


It's Laura that points out just how easy it would be to slip the anklet.

The anklet is an essential part of the house arrest he's agreed to, and in respect for his many skills, they've given him the best the market has to offer.

He comes up with three ways to get out of it within a minute of them putting it on, one of which would leave them none the wiser. But he keeps those to himself because this isn't a prison to break out of, this is a decision he made so he could be there for his family.

(The family that Ross still shouldn't know about and wouldn't have if it weren't for a certain secret spilling billionaire who Clint still needs to have a very _special_ conversation with that will absolutely, positively, not involve violence. Really. He swears.)

He comes up with about five more possibilities within the day, but it's just absent thinking, the instinct of long habit. He doesn't intend to go anywhere.

So it's Laura who first voices the comment out loud, and it's not because of a mission that Nat drops him coded hints about through the phone the government doesn't know he has or due to some catastrophe on the news.

It's because Laura's sick with a horrible cold that's kept her up for half the night, and she really doesn't feel up to heading out to get the groceries they definitely need.

"You do it," she says through a congested nose and a face full of tissues.

"Um." Clint isn't sure this is the best time to remind her why he can't. She tends to rant when she gets started on the subject of the Accords and their aftermath, and that doesn't seem like the best idea when she's currently struggling a bit to breathe.

She glares at him. "We both know you could be out of that thing in five minutes," she says.

"Four," he says automatically. "Under one if we don't care if they know about it." Then he shakes his head and gets back to the point. "If they're watching the town, that could be a problem."

Laura grumbles an agreement. "Call Mrs. Cooper," she finally says. "Today's her grocery day. Maybe she'll pick a few things up for us."

"Okay," Clint agrees, feeling kind of useless and hating it.

Laura's face softens. "You did the right thing," she tells him. "And I'm glad you're home."

Which helps, but Clint does hesitate before he calls Mrs. Cooper. He could slip the anklet. Just for a bit.

Then he hears Cooper and Lila arguing in the next room which starts Nathaniel off crying, and he reminds himself that Laura can't do this on her own. He can't take the risk. Not for this.

He makes the call and breaks up the kids and comforts Nathaniel, and he resolutely doesn't think about the advertisement for health care he got in the mail just today that is his and Nat's old code for 'still alive but wounded.'

He could break out. He won't.

* * *

He's in the middle of staring at a home improvement catalogue and attempting to convince himself that he doesn't need to start another project when he gets a call offering him a temporary release from his house arrest in order to attend Tony's wedding.

His all too well trained brain instantly offers him ten ways to use this opportunity to permanently slip the leash.

Slipping the leash means leaving his family behind. He won't do that. He can't.

So maybe he's just resisting temptation by turning the offer down.

Alternately, he's still holding a grudge, but that would be setting a bad example for the kids, so obviously he can't be doing that. That would be wrong.

Laura doesn't look convinced, but she also doesn't argue with him.

* * *

Nat sends him an ad for the chocolates she sometimes treats herself to when a mission has gone exceptionally well. She's alive, she's well, they're doing fine without him.

Clint goes to read a story to the kids and tries to convince himself that the home improvement catalogue was the only thing that had been drawing his attention, and not the travel magazine right beneath it.

* * *

Clint tries not to watch the news too much. He doesn't have to stay informed anymore. The world can sort its own problems out. All he has to worry about is his family.

And if worrying about his family means practicing relentlessly to stay in shape and battle ready, well, he's still got enemies out there. It only makes sense.

Lila has started watching it though, because it makes her feel more grown up. Which is how Clint gets a little girl come running from the living room going, "Daddy, Daddy, the aliens came back!"

Clint's mind goes to the Chitauri and Loki, and his throat closes because they'll be wanting revenge, and here's his family, now outed and just waiting for someone to come along -

But it's different aliens, at least according to the news anchors.

And apparently Tony's gone missing, which Clint is not willing to put money on being a coincidence.

"If you need to go - " Laura starts to say.

"I need to stay here," Clint says firmly.

He already has defenses set up around the farm. He fine tunes them as the radio plays behind him, relaying news in a never ending stream.

* * *

He's checking the stash of arrows he's got hidden in the kitchen when the radio announcer says that there's been an attack on Wakanda.

He is still in the kitchen when Laura begins to scream.

He's in the living room, weapon drawn, within heartbeats.

There's no threat. Nothing to shoot.

Nothing to stop Laura from breaking into little pieces that drift away.

Lila is staring in wide eyed shock, and Agent Barton steps into Clint's mind and takes advantage of that stage before it turns to screams. "Lila, where's Cooper?"

Lila points blankly at the floor where there is another coating of slowly vanishing dust.

Her hand starts to break apart.

"Daddy?" she whimpers.

"Lila," he says hoarsely, and he's dropped his weapon and run to her in a moment. Agent Barton is gone again, leaving a father who doesn't care about potential infection, doesn't care about anything but the little girl who is breaking apart in his arms. "Lila, it's alright, I'm here, you're alright - "

"Daddy, make it stop," she sobs.

"You're alright, it's going to be alright, I love you, Lila, Lila, Lila - " He is choking on dust. Sobbing through it.

He is not prepared for this.

In his playpen in the corner, Nathaniel gives a hiccuping cry.

Clint whirls around, but Nathaniel is not breaking apart. He's just scared. "Mama?" he asks uncertainly.

Clint picks him up like he's made of glass and rubs circles on his back. "Mama can't be here right now, baby," he whispers. He shifts his hold, so that he's carrying Nathaniel in just one arm.

The radio announcer in the other room has gone silent. There is a long, terrible pause before another announcer picks up in a shaking voice.

Nathaniel's a bit big for his old sling, but Clint can make it work. That'll leave his hands free, and in the chaos that's got to be swelling, that could be important.

He picks up his weapon and moves through the house with a cold clarity that is threatening to crack into a shattered grief that not even the Chitauri Incident could equal.

But he can't. Not yet.

Nathaniel whimpers.

"You're going to be alright," he tells him, and he prays that this time, it is not a lie. "Daddy's going to make sure of it."


End file.
